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Asia
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Modern

Science and Religion

World: Academics
Ponder the Ties Between Faith and Fact. By Gregg Easterbrook. When
the baby boom generation first decamped for college, if there was one intellectual
topic that was totally passe, it was the relationship between science and
religion. Now, as the boomers' children head to college, if there's one
intellectual topic that is starting to blaze red hot, it is the relationship
between science and religion. [The Los Angeles Times]

World: Is
God in the Details?By Faye Flam. Most scientists, when surveyed,
say they do not believe in God, but suddenly science and religion are communing
with one another. Critics charge that the new emphasis on science and religion
paints a picture of scientists finding God. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]

U.K.: Religion
Tackles Mental Illness. The Religion and Severe Mental Illness Conference
in May aimed to "raise awareness of the issue of mental illness as
the proper concern of religious leaders and those involved in or associated
with religion". It was addressed by leaders of Christianity, Islam
and Judaism. [BBC News]

U.S.: Spiritual
Harm is Health Issue One. By Paul Barnsley. It was a move that
caused more than a bit of friction with Native health care providers who
have been trained in the western, scientific tradition and objected to
the focus on traditional approaches. [Sweetgrass News]

U.S.: Study
Questions Health, Faith Link. By Adelle M. Banks. A new report
by a team of researchers at Columbia University has voiced strong criticism
of the plethora of recent studies linking the religious beliefs and activities
of patients to better health. [Religion News Service]

U.S.: Paleontologist
Argues for Keeping Science and Religion Apart. By Holly J. Lebowitz.
In recent years, a spate of books, news reports and academic papers
has appeared maintaining that science and religion, after centuries of
conflict, finally seem to be coming together. But there is at least one
respected voice saying that not only was this conflict false, but that
science and religion should remain separate. [Religion News Service]

U.S.: Science,
Religion Questioning One Another Once Again. By Karen R. Long. Those
two old war-horses, science and religion, are playing high-profile footsie
again. Prominent theologians and physicists converged on the Smithsonian
Museum of Natural History for three days last week (April 14-16) to argue
whether the newest cosmology – fresh off the Hubble Telescope – adds heft
to the arguments that God does exist. [Religion News Service]

U.S.: Is
Astronomy Refashioning the Images of God? By Karen R. Long.
The hope that humanity is not alone in the universe heated up in April
with news of the first solar system outside our own. Astronomers meeting
with theologians at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History rushed to
update their slides and reword their presentation. [Religion News Service]

U.S.: Scientists,
Theologians Discuss "Cosmic Questions". By Frank D. Roylance.
"I have to admit that when physicists go as far as they can go,
there is an irreducible mystery that science will not eliminate,"
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg says. But unlike many other
scientists, Weinberg – an outspoken atheist – is conceding nothing to theology.
[The Baltimore Sun]

World: Sikhs
Battle Internal Division on Eve of Historic Anniversary. By Scott
Neuman. The disagreement might seem minor: whether to take a religious
meal while seated at a table or on the floor. But for the world's 20 million
Sikhs, the issue symbolizes a power struggle between moderates and conservatives.
[The Associated Press]

Germany: Why
East German Teens Seek Secular Rite of Passage. By Lucian Kim. A
record 11,000 young Berliners will take part in the Jugendfeier this spring,
and the Humanistic Association, which organized the event in eastern Berlin's
Friedrichstadtpalast, is initiating some 100,000 young people nationwide.
[The Christian Science Monitor]

U.K.: Church
Wins Prayer Space Within Millennium Dome. By Victoria Combe.
Under pressure from church leaders to acknowledge the religious significance
of the Millennium, the Dome organisers have allocated a sound-proofed room
for prayer and meditation for people of all faiths. [The Electronic
Telegraph]

U.S.: Pagan Coalition Builds Community Through Action
(and a Whole Lot of Email). Today, it is a large task force in Washington,
DC with 23 group supporters, five different programs, two listserves, and
a substantial multi-page website, but Mystic District Planning Coalition
began a year ago as little more than an idle observation during a subway
ride. [Mystic District]

U.S.: "Xena"
Producers Relent on Hindu Episode. By Cynthia Littleton. Following
weeks of protest from Hindu groups, the producers of "Xena: Warrior
Princess" have agreed to pull out of worldwide circulation an episode
that dealt with Hindu deities. [Reuters]

Vietnam: Cao
Dei Religion Struggles in Vietnam. By Andy Solomon. Fear is
pervasive at the Tay Ninh Holy See, the seat of this unique sect that blends
Eastern and Western religious philosophies under a banner of "Love
and Justice." [Reuters]

Historical
and Prehistorical

AFRICA

Nigeria: Searching
for the Queen of Sheba. A team of British scientists may have rediscovered
the centre of one of Africa's greatest kingdoms – and the possible burial
place of the legendary Queen of Sheba. [BBC News]

ASIA

Myanmar: Restoration
to Start on Buddhist Pagoda. In the first large renovation of the Shwedagon
Pagoda in more than a century some 9,000 gold plates, weighing more than
a ton, will be added to the Pagoda. [Buddhayana Quarterly]

Nepal: Slow
Delivery for Buddha Birthplace Project. By Alastair Lawson. The
birthplace of Buddha is being turned into an international pilgrimage centre
– a project which the authorities in Nepal hope will draw visitors to their
country. [BBC News]

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

Inca Sacrifices in Argentina

Argentina: Tiny
Sacrifices at 22,000 Feet. By Jonah Blank. At the peak of an
Andean volcano, three children were found cold, with gold – and 500 years
old. [U.S. News & World Report]

Argentina: Highest
Dig Yields Inka Sacrifices. By Angela M. H. Schuster. The perfectly
preserved bodies of two Inka girls and a boy have been found atop the 22,000-foot
Andean volcano Llullaillaco in northwestern Argentina. [Archaeology]

EUROPE

Knowth Tomb

Ireland: Knowth
Tomb May Surpass Newgrange. By Elaine Keogh. The tomb at Knowth,
County Meath, was a royal burial place for thousands of years. As conservation
work nears completion, it is emerging as more elaborately decorated than
the bigger tourist attraction of Newgrange. [The Irish Times]

Ireland: Prehistoric
Moon Map Unearthed. By David Whitehouse. A map of the Moon 10
times older than anything known before has been found carved into stone
at one of Ireland's most ancient and mysterious Neolithic sites. [BBC
News]

U.K.: Ancient
Tomb Captured the Winter Sun. By David Whitehouse. A mysterious
prehistoric tomb on the island of Orkney has a special "light box"
cut into its roof, archaeologists have discovered. It allowed a shaft of
light to herald the start and end of winter. [BBC News]

U.K.: Ancient
Tomb Captured Both Sun and Moon. By David Whitehouse. An ancient
Irish tomb may have been built with a light chamber aligned not only to
the Sun, but to the Moon as well. [BBC News]

Ireland: Experts
Fear for Future of Ancient Burial Site. By Elaine Keogh. In
ancient times Tlachtga was the religious centre of Ireland and a place
of ceremony where our ancestors lit fires to banish the forces of darkness
on the eve of Samhain. Today there are fears for the future of the bronze
burial site that was the birthplace of Hallowe'en. [The Irish Times]

Russia: Bronze
Age to New Age. By Spencer P. M. Harrington. The zealous attention
of New Age groups to ancient megalithic tombs along the eastern Black Sea
coast has spurred measures to protect the monuments. [Archaeology]

Russia: The
"Princess" of Ipatova Found. By Andrej Belinskij and Heinrich
Härke. A rich Scythian-Sarmatian burial has been discovered near
the town of Ipatovo, in southern Russia, containing gold necklets and spiral
bracelets, an akinakes (dagger) in a gold-covered scabbard, ceramic vessels,
and other offerings. [Archaeology]

U.K.: Roman
Coffin Discovered. By Olga Craig. It is one of most exciting
discoveries in archaeology in recent times. But the unearthing of a Roman
tomb in the City of London has also created an intriguing mystery: who
is in it and why was she buried so elaborately? [The Electronic Telegraph]

U.K.: Fences
Come Down at Stonehenge. Plans to restore the site around Stonehenge
to how it may have been thousands of years ago were announced in April.
[BBC News]

U.K.: Neolithic
House and Roman Temple on Rail Link Route. Archaeologists working on
the line of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link through Kent have encountered
a number of important sites, including a Neolithic long house, Roman and
Saxon cemeteries and a Roman villa with outbuildings and a private temple.
[British Archaeology]

U.K.: "Seahenge"
Moves On. By Kim Riley. A Bronze Age circle of wooden posts,
known as "Seahenge", is being removed from the sands on the Norfolk
coast. [BBC News]

MIDDLE EAST

The Historical Jesus

U.S.: Bible Scholar
Thinks Many Peers Miss Out on Jesus. By Richard N. Ostling.
Luke Timothy Johnson, a former monk who later married, caused a ruckus
with his 1995 book "The Real Jesus," a racy attack on academic
fashions. Johnson is now revisiting his theme in two new books that are
less polemical and more pastoral. [The Associated Press]

U.S.: Rebel
Theologian: It's Hardly Retirement for John Crossan. By Mark Pinsky.
John Dominic Crossan, a scholarly guerrilla, has settled deep behind enemy
lines. Scorned by some conservative theologians as an academic antichrist
for his controversial views on the "historical Jesus," Crossan
is quietly ensconced in Central Florida, an evangelical stronghold. [The
Orlando Sentinel]

Canada: Smuggled
Mosaics Going Back to Syria. By Susan Semenak. They have endured
for more than 1,500 years. They lined the floors of Syrian churches through
many wars and then languished in a St. Laurent warehouse for eight years
after a bungled smuggling attempt brought them to Montreal. [The Montreal
Gazette]

Gaza Strip: Sixth-Century
Byzantine Church Discovered. By Ross Dunn. Archaeologists have
uncovered the remains of a sixth-century Byzantine church dedicated to
John the Baptist at an Israeli military installation in the Gaza Strip.
[Ecumenical News International]

Germany: Recovering
Gilgamesh's Opening Lines. By Ronan James Head. The Gilgamesh
epic has been pieced together from clay tablets found around the Fertile
Crescent. But these tablets, inscribed with cuneiform characters, are extremely
fragmentary; after almost 150 years of decipherment, about 20 percent of
the epic remained missing – including its opening lines. But Theodore Kwasmann,
an American scholar working in Germany, has changed that. [Archaeology
Odyssey]

Israel: Plan to
Recreate Jesus' Hometown Underway. The project, dubbed Nazareth Village,
is set to open with the new millennium, when millions of tourists are expected
to visit the Holy Land. [Biblical Archaeology Review]

Israel: Oldest
Synagogue in Jerusalem Found. By Judith Sudilovsky. Following
in her late grandfather's footsteps, Hebrew University archaeologist Eilat
Mazar has identified the oldest synagogue in Jerusalem – a room in a structure
dubbed "the House of Menoroth" (House of Menorahs, or Candelabra).
[Biblical Archaeology Review]

Jordan: Cattle
Save Sculpture. By Spencer P. M. Harrington. A barn full of
cows and their dung cushioned the collapse of a Roman temple at Dharih,
Jordan, around the eighth century A.D. Excavation of the temple has raised
questions about early Christian attitudes toward pagan images. [Archaeology]

Jordan: Site of
Jesus' Baptism Found – Again. By Judith Sudilovsky. Jordanian
archaeologists have uncovered the remains of two Byzantine churches on
the east bank of the Jordan River, about 5 miles north of the Dead Sea
– churches that may mark the site of Jesus' baptism. But a site directly
across the river, on the Israeli-controlled west bank, already claims that
honor. [Biblical Archaeology Review]

Palestine: Mosaic
Found Under Manger Square. Excavators with the Palestinian Department
of Antiquities have found a large Byzantine mosaic while renovating Manger
Square, in front of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. [Biblical
Archaeology Review]

U.S.: Biblical
Scholars Gather in Orlando. By Hershel Shanks. "It started
early. With hundreds of people assembled to listen to four great scholars
talk about the latest on ancient seals and seal impressions, no one from
the hotel was there to tell us how to turn out the lights so we could see
the slides." [Biblical Archaeology Review]

NORTH AMERICA

U.S.: Navajos
Shun Return of Burial Plunder. By Bill Donovan. While other
tribes have worked with museums like the Smithsonian and the Museum of
Northern Arizona in Flagstaff to get the human remains returned for reburial,
Navajo officials say that their medicine men and reservation communities
have expressed no desire to do so. [The Arizona Republic]

U.S.: History
Meets Future in Indian Rock Art. By Peter Corbett. Images of
snakes, lizards, stick-figure people and deities left by Hohokam artists
centuries ago decorate the outcropping of rock at the resort with its manicured
lawns, flower gardens, fountains and stucco buildings built into the mountain's
rocky slopes. [The Arizona Republic]